Eve, a 9-year-old Siamang at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, took a different approach to Labor Day this year: by going into labor. In the wee hours of the morning, she gave birth to an adorable black-haired, pink-eared baby, whose sex has not yet been identified. Baby and mom seem to be doing well so far, and dad, Wayan, is curious and calm around baby. Their keepers, once they recovered from the happy surprise of discovering the baby this morning, have been monitoring the family of three, and see good signs from all.
"Eve and Wayan are normally spooning together when we come into work for early-morning checks," said Kelsey Newman, keeper at CMZoo who doesn't always work in Primate World, but was the first to see the baby Siamang. "This morning, I noticed they were sitting a little differently. Then, Wayan moved away from Eve and I saw the little baby's arm. It was a surprise, for sure."
Although Siamangs, a kind of gibbon, are endangered in the wild, Eve and Wayan did not have a breeding recommendation from the Gibbon
Species Survival Plan. Because their different families' genetics are well represented in Siamangs in human care, they weren't currently recommended to breed, but those recommendations can change at any time. With that in mind, Eve has been on oral birth control. Just like humans, oral contraceptives are not 100% effective for apes. Siamangs don't show signs of pregnancy as obviously as humans, so the birth did come as a surprise to keepers, but Eve seems to have embraced motherhood without skipping a beat.
"You can tell just by looking at Eve that she's head over heels in love with that baby already," said Joanna Husby, Primate World animal care manager. "She's cradling her baby with both arms, licking its head and nuzzling it while it nurses. It's really sweet."
